Stack the Deck
by natasha0
Summary: Fab Four memory sparked from An Echolls Family Christmas. The meaning behind the quick glance Veronica and Logan share after she solves the crime.


Veronica sat next to Logan at the lunch table like she owned the quad. She had just announced that she'd figured out who stole Weevil's poker money and now she wanted Logan to host another game. All those assembled were gaping at her like fish, but no one more than Logan, who was surprised by her proximity. He inched away from her and looked at Duncan to see his reaction to what was going on only to be disappointed when he saw no reaction at all.

"I'll tell you who did it and you'll buy me into the game. I'll just take the place of whoever stole the money. Unless you still might think you want him around?" Veronica looked around at all of the guys, wide-eyed.

Impressed by her tenacity but still unwilling to comply, Logan responded, "You know, even if you keep talking, it's not gonna happen."

Veronica shook her head, faking disappointment. "Oh. I thought you guys might all want your stuff back."

Weevil, who had followed Veronica over to the table, reached for a slice of the pizza from the box in front of them. "Yeah. If I get my five grand, some items could," he took a bite, "magically reappear."

Piggy-backing on Weevil's support of her plan, she added, "And if you think about it, anyone who doesn't see this as a great offer is obviously the thief. Kind of a no-brainer." She stood up, knowing that she'd won.

Logan looked at her and smirked. "Do you even know how to play poker?"

Veronica stared at him searchingly for a micro moment, wondering if he remembered. "No," she answered, feigning awe. "But it must be really hard if all you guys play."

* * *

Several girls, including Veronica Mars, pour shrieking into Logan's pool house with their arms covering their heads. Lilly Kane saunters in soon after completely unconcerned that she's soaking wet. In fact, Lilly stops in the open door and strikes a sultry pose specifically designed to show off the now transparent white T-shirt knotted at her midriff.

Logan, sitting at the poker table, sees his ex-girlfriend and freezes in consternation before pulling his sweater off the back of his chair and laying it across his lap. "Man, that storm must be worse than I thought. Are we over the rainbow now? Hey, Glinda, isn't your bestie supposed to melt when doused with water?"

Veronica narrows her eyes at Logan, but doesn't respond. She knows better than to get in the middle of one of Logan and Lilly's fights, and goodness knows Lilly doesn't need her help fighting with Logan. Assuming she still _wants_ to fight. It was Lilly's idea to crash Logan's annual Christmas Poker Night, after all.

Lilly, noting Logan's strategically placed sweater, quirks her eyebrow and lobbies a response, "Careful, there, Logan, or I might not let you under this shirt ever again." She strolls by the table and brushes artfully against Logan's shoulder as she passes by his chair towards the couch.

A flush rises on Logan's cheeks and Veronica can read him well enough to know that it's one part anger, one part lust and one part resignation. Shaking her head, she admonishes her friend, although without any real heat in her voice, "Lilly, we talked about oversharing in public."

Veronica can hear Luke snigger from his place at the table and looks over as he nudges Dick. She can just hear his comment; "She already overshared real nice in public with Enbom at Shelley's party, so why not here." This causes Logan's already red face to turn purple, and Veronica is out of her seat on the couch and at his side just as he shoots out of his chair.

She places a restraining hand on his arm and murmurs, "Don't. Your parents' party. They'll be mad." The words and Veronica's hand seem to do the trick, and Logan sits down and starts to take his aggression out on shuffling the cards.

Madison moves toward the table. Veronica can clearly tell that she had been on her way to sit between Dick and Logan, but now that it seems that Lilly is intent on getting Logan back, her face betrays that she's trying to decide her next strategic move. _C'mon Madison, I'm really gonna enjoy watching you try to get in the middle of this. Especially with your boyfriend sitting right next to him_.

Apparently the temptation to try is too great, because Veronica sees the glint in Madison's eyes as they flick toward Dick and then focus right on Logan. She dons her vapid flirt face and exclaims, "Oh my God! You guys can play poker? But it's so _hard_!" before flitting the rest of the way over to the table and worming her way into the narrow space between Dick and Logan, her back to Dick so that her boobs are pretty much in Logan's face when he turns his head.

Dick, oblivious to his girlfriend flirting with another guy right in front of him, pulls her into his lap and grabs her hand, dragging it towards his crotch. "I'll show you what's hard, babe." He tries to plant wet, open-mouthed kisses on her neck, but she shrieks and disentangles herself from him, smacking him upside the head. "Ugh! Get off of me, asshole!" Dick, undeterred by her reaction, laughs uproariously with the other guys and takes a swig of his beer.

Still standing on Logan's other side, Veronica mumbles under her breath, so that only he can hear, " .gah! Poker must be, like, really hard if all you guys play." Her impression of one of their least favorite people does the trick, and Logan eases up on his abuse of the cards and smirks in her direction, winking. She smiles back at him, pats him on the shoulder and walks back to her seat on the couch. She picks up the remote and turns on the TV, flipping channels until she finds a rerun of one of her favorite holiday movies, _The Year Without a Santa Claus_.

Lilly looks up from her conversation with Pam and groans. "Again, 'Ronica? I can't take that stupid Heat Miser song anymore. Turn that shit off!"

"Shut up, Lilly!" Duncan calls from behind his cards. "Go ahead, Veronica, watch whatever you want." He smiles shyly at her before focusing back on his hand.

Veronica tries to hide her pleasure at Duncan's help. She blushes prettily and smiles to herself, but Lilly catches it and scootches over to her side of the couch. "See? I told you he likes you," Lilly whispers loudly.

"Shh! Be quiet!" Veronica says under her breath and takes a swipe at Lilly. "He's just being nice."

Lilly takes her voice down about ten notches and says, "Well, if I have anything to say about it, he'll be more than nice before this party is over." In a normal tone, she calls out, "Let's get this party started! Logan, the key to the hard stuff?"

Logan doesn't turn around. "Is already out of its special place. Bar's open. Mars, are you staying this time, or am I on drunken Kane duty tonight?"

"I'll stay and help you, Logan. Alll night!" Madison purrs from her place still on Dick lap. At this, Logan finally turns around and stares imploringly at Veronica, pleading with his eyes for her to stay.

Laughing at his reaction, Veronica replies, "I'm all clear for the night. The folks think I'm at Lilly's."

Logan rubs his hands together and hunches his shoulders, affecting the attitude of a man with a plan. "Eeeexcellent!"

The drinks flow and the chips dwindle over the next few hours for everyone but Veronica, who is not more than slightly buzzed, and Luke, whose chip pile grows instead of shrinks. Duncan loses all his money soon after Lilly starts serving him drinks, just as she'd planned, and he leaves the table to join the girls on the couch. Pam and Shelley take turns trying to cozy up to him, and he's definitely enjoying the attention, much to Lilly's dismay.

"If you want him, you've gotta fight for him, Veronica Mars. I can only do so much here!" Lilly says into Veronica's ear, exasperated.

"Yeah, well, I'm not like you. I'm a 'Wait for him to talk to me' kinda gal. If he wants to ask me out, he knows where to find me," Veronica shrugs in reply, watching Duncan sadly from the corner of her eye.

Disgusted, Lilly throws her hands in the air and bounces away to continue her torment of Logan. She's shamelessly flirting with Casey, but everyone knows that she's _really_ performing for Logan, including both of the boys in question.

Soon, the crowd in the pool house thins considerably. Madison, seeing that she's getting nowhere with Logan, leaves with Dick, and almost everyone else follows them out. Lilly disappears at some point, too, but Veronica knows she'll be back soon. No way would Lilly leave her alone the whole night at Logan's. Duncan is happily drunk on the couch watching scrambled Sesame Street on the TV. The storm must have affected the dish, but the sound is still working even if the picture is screwy. He's trying to sing along to the Alphabet Song, but keeps getting confused, "– L-M-N-O-T-U-V – No wait, that's not right," before starting again. And again. And again.

Veronica is sitting at the table, holding up her head in her hands. "Now I know how you guys feel about the Heat Miser song. Can't we turn him off?"

Logan laughs and looks at his best friend. "By my count, he's got maybe one more try before he passes out. Give him a minute." Sure enough, Duncan starts snoring softly halfway through his next attempt, and Logan gets up and shuts off the TV.

Returning to the table, he picks up the cards and starts shuffling. "How 'bout it, Ronnie? Wanna learn how to play poker? We've gotta wait up for Queen Bee anyway, assuming she's coming back?" He looks at her expectantly.

Veronica nods apologetically. "She'll be back, Logan. She always comes back. You know that."

Logan looks away from her quickly and down at the cards. "Mhm," he mutters non-committally and then forces a jovial tone, which doesn't fool Veronica in the slightest, but which she chooses to accept. "First lesson in poker playing: bluffing."

There are a lot of things Veronica knows, despite the fact that her pink fuzzy sweaters and flowered sundresses might indicate that she lives a…sheltered life. But having your father as the town sheriff exposes you too all sorts of less that savory things at a young age. One of these things is poker. She had passed many a night watching her father play with his friends Cliff, Bill, and some other guys from the station. Usually, her mother was out for the evening, so she was allowed to stay up and watch as long as she stayed quiet and kept the chip bowls refilled. She isn't, however, about to admit as much to Logan. She's having way too much fun watching him and his overinflated ego try and teach little ol' her the game.

"Can we start with the shuffling, oh wise Card Master?" Veronica asks in mock adoration, fluttering her eyelashes. Then her countenance changes to determination as she adds, "I want to learn those neat shuffling and dealing tricks you do."

Smirking, Logan starts to move the cards around with his fingers, "You mean like this?"

Veronica stares at his hands intently, trying to figure out his movements. She's noticed before how agile he is with his hands, and blushes when she remembers Lilly confirming his skill with his fingers after she'd mentioned it once.

"Admit it, Ronnie, you're impressed," Logan says, smug.

"I already did, jackass. Now let me try." She grabs the cards and starts trying to maneuver them around like he did. They end up scattered across the table and her lap, and she sighs in frustration. She collects them all and taps them into a pile, ready to try again.

They practice for another twenty minutes or so - "Try like this." "Where do I put my pinky?" "That's it, you're getting it." – until Lilly comes back.

"Oh, did everyone leave?" Lilly asks, feigning surprise at finding the pool house virtually empty. She bounces over to the table and sits down, rubbing the felt slowly in front of her. "A little strip poker, anyone?" she asks, suggestively.

"A little too late for you, no?" Logan snaps. "Why did you even bother putting your clothes back on after – who was it you were with this time?" He grabs the deck from Veronica's hands – "Keep practicing, Ronnie. You almost had it." - and shoves it back into the box, throwing it into the drawer in the table before shoving his chair back and jumping up.

"Well, maybe if you would have paid a little more attention to me tonight, it could have been you…"

Veronica tunes them out and walks over to the couch where Duncan is still passed out, despite the yelling. She nudges him until he turns on his side and then throws a blanket pulled from a nearby basket over him. She grabs another blanket and turns just in time to catch Logan spinning Lilly into the bedroom and kicking the door closed behind them. Sighing at her friends and their roller-coaster relationship – _I'm never going to let that happen to me_ -, she takes her blanket out to the side of the pool and lies down on a lounger to sleep.

* * *

Veronica picked up the deck of cards from the poker table and settled in her chair. She felt smug, not only about solving the case, but also about how she was going to completely blindside everyone at this table with her poker playing ability. It had been two long years since the last time she sat at this table, and she'd had a lot of practice at both the game – her father now let her play a few hands occasionally while he went to refresh the snacks – and at the shuffling. She tapped the deck on the table, and began wowing them with her handling of the cards. She furtively shot a look at Logan, who unwillingly grinned back at her, impressed.

Yeah, he remembered.


End file.
